Archive of atrocities: Race to find the documents that will prove the Assad regime's crimes

Syrian investigators are rushing to accumulate and protect crucial evidence for future prosecution

A woman looks through a list of names in a document at Saydnaya military prison, just north of Damascus. (AP Photo / Hussein Malla)

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An archive of atrocities is being formed to ensure future justice for Syrians who were victims of president Bashar Al Assad's regime and other groups.

Troves of documents from the Syrian security services are being uncovered by the forces that toppled the Assad regime on Sunday. Videos circulating on social media show Syrians rummaging through these archives, in a desperate search for information about their loved ones and the missing.

One has to be careful to ensure originals are not destroyed, be kept in safe places, can be stored and digitised in servers overseas

Stephen Rapp

But there are many other archives like these that have not been made public. Investigators in Syria are rushing to locate, access and safely store these documents.

Their aim is to preserve and digitise them in Syria so that the country's courts can one day prosecute the perpetrators of war crimes committed by the regime, but also work to heal deep divisions among communities.

Hayat Tahrir Al Sham’s leader Ahmed Al Shara, who is now overseeing Syria’s transitional government, promised to bring war criminals to account. “We will not hesitate to hold accountable the criminals, murderers, security and army officers involved in torturing the Syrian people,” he said this week.

The Damascus security zone, where people were interrogated, tortured and detained, is giving up its secrets.

The group also gave amnesty to conscripted soldiers of the Assad regime's armed forces but questions swirl around how justice can be achieved.

“What criminal accountability looks like for the new Syria transitioning is an answer that has to come from the Syrians themselves. Whether this is something they want in part or as a whole,” said Nerma Jelacic, a director at the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA).

While bringing perpetrators to justice was a central task, healing divided communities was another. “It shouldn’t be only heavily focused on criminal justice. There have to be all these other aspects and answers that are given for a community that is heavily divided,” Ms Jelacic said.

Syria storage

The first immediate challenge is to protect the documents. The most famous images come from the Druze city Suweida, where spy reports about every resident family were uncovered in a former security building.

Dozens of Syrian investigators have been locating the material and working to secure it. Among them is Amine*, CIJA's chief investigator in Syria, whose name and location have been withheld for his protection.

The past week, he said, has been challenging as witnesses who were previously displaced by the war were moving homes, and documents remain difficult to access in certain areas.

"These difficulties persist, largely because various military factions now control many locations previously occupied by the regime and Iranian militias, restricting entry to these locations. Some of these documents have been exposed to destruction and burning," he said.

But despite the challenges, he remained optimistic, "These obstacles will diminish over time. The liberation has provided me with even greater motivation to continue investigating and documenting violations in Syria," he said.

"We need to find safe places in Syria. One has to be careful to ensure originals are not destroyed, be kept in safe places, can be stored and digitised in servers overseas,” said Stephen Rapp, a former US ambassador for war crimes at the Office of Global Criminal Justice, who is involved in accountability initiatives for Syrians, including CIJA.

There were risks that people seeking justice for their loved ones would seize some of the documents, or that perpetrators could destroy them. “The last thing we want is for people to pilfer that, and equally we don’t want anybody going in and destroying it,” Mr Rapp said.

But there was also a general relief, after years of smuggling out documents under dangerous conditions. “The movement of documents, which was enormously difficult during the civil war, will now be much easier,” he said.

Nerma Jelacic stands behind CIJA's archives in Europe. Photo: Nerma Jelacic

World courts

For almost 10 years, evidence of the Syrian security services torturing and killing tens of thousands of victims has been provided by the Caesar Files, documents smuggled out of Syria by a military photographer and defector code-named Caesar.

The Syrian opposition took these documents to courts in Europe, successfully convicting Syrian intelligence operatives and high-ranking regime officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Syrians have been the backbone of [accountability] in their documentation. That all had to be done outside of Syria. Today Syria is a safer place than it has ever been,” said Mouaz Moustafa, director of the SETF.

There was now hope that Syria’s courts could be reformed so that prosecutions of all perpetrators could take place there. “In the past, we used external efforts. Now it can be based upon a Syrian-led process. The preference is always for courts in Syria,” Mr Rapp said.

Amine, the investigator, hoped to see "national trials that hold these criminals accountable".

Syrians should work towards establishing “a tribunal with international assistance”. “We have to make sure there are partners working with Syrians and to make sure it’s done to international standards,” he said.

The precedent set by investigations in Europe will help any Syrian-led process. “Syrians will benefit enormously from the fact that these have been continuing for some years,” Mr Rapp said.

While it will be “simple” to prosecute those directly involved in torture, the harder cases will be those against people higher up the echelons – “those who gave the orders, and the machinery of people who really made it operate,” he said.

There was also a need to continue working with European and US-led courts to ensure that war criminals fleeing Syria to the West are brought to justice, Mr Rapp said.

Working with the International Criminal Court was also a possibility, should Syria become a member under its new leadership.

The Syrian military defector codenamed Caesar testifies about the civil war in Syria before the US Senate foreign relations committee in 2020. AFP

Retribution and healing

There have been long-held fears, including among the Syrian opposition, that the toppling of the regime could lead to revenge killings, as people traumatised by war seek to take justice into their own hands. Reports of such killings and executions have emerged in the days after the regime’s collapse.

A strong and credible transitional justice was the best way to mitigate the threat of “an eye for an eye”, Mr Rapp said. “People don’t do that if they think justice will be possible.”

It was also important to investigate crimes committed by all sides. “If these wounds are to be healed, there is the importance of recognising the wrongs committed by the regime, the wrong committed by some other parties.

A careful balancing act was needed, so that the pursuit of justice was “not used to perpetuate those divisions,” particularly in regime-held areas, she said.

“You still have elements of the society that remain there, and we need them to remain there. This is where all that healing has to happen and where the kind of retribution on a community scale has to be prevented,” she said.

But the possibility of an amnesty to support a peace process was "highly unpopular". "The idea of granting a general amnesty to all individuals who committed crimes against the Syrian people is highly unpopular—not just with me but with the majority of Syrians," said Amine, the investigator.

"It is essential and urgent to begin legal proceedings against these criminals, bring them to justice, and establish fact-finding committees comprises legal experts and judges. These steps are vital for achieving long-term stability in Syria and ensuring justice while preventing cycles of vengeance and revenge," he said.

The images smuggled by the photographer codenamed Caesar were were exhibited at the UN headquarters in New York in 2015, and many other places since. Reuters

Berlin Wall

The scenes emerging from Syria's secret service archives today are reminiscent of the storming of the Stasi headquarters after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, where East German citizens gathered to stop the destruction of sensitive files.

And indeed, Mr Rapp believed the “huge change” coming to Syria was comparable to the Wall’s collapse. But he also warned of the lessons to draw from the events of '89. As the Stasi’s archives became public, millions of Germans were identified as informants – but they often admitted to it under duress and blackmail.

A similar acknowledgement that not all Syrian linked to the regime were responsible for the crimes that the regime committed was needed. “You have to have ways people can redeem themselves and be rehabilitated,” he said.

Another cautionary tale was post-Saddam Iraq, where all members of the Baath party were excluded from government and civil service.

Those working towards accountability said Mr Al Shara's messages about the transition so far had been "positive", including his promises towards minorities and the amnesty given to soldiers of the Syrian Arab Army.

“There have been some positive moves in these early days, showing that there is an recognition of that importance of building the trust between the communities that have been divided for so long. That just has to continue on a deeper and larger scale as new systems are set up,” Ms Jelacic said.

Assad’s reckoning

Mr Al Assad’s retreat to Moscow may be “disappointing” to those eagerly waiting to see him on trial, Ms Jelacic said, but she urged them not to lose hope.

The evidence gathered in the past 10 years was enough to convict Mr Al Assad, she said. “Is there evidence of his criminality? That has been answered a long time ago."

The opportunity to prosecute him was simply a matter of time. “Eleven years ago when people were saying, why are you collecting this now, look he’s winning, we said the day will come when he will fall,” she said. “OK he still has asylum in Moscow, but that day will still come when he will not have that protection any more.”

She pointed to the eventual arrest of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, who was charged with war crimes at The Hague and died in prison before he could stand trial. “He was still clinking champagne glasses in Geneva with world politicians and signing peace accords while there were indictments being turned against him, no one thought that he could ever fall,” she said.